And so we find ourselves
Where we’ve always been,
Ignoring sincere pleas
For peace and love and
Hurtling instead toward
Facile vengeance,
The familiar path to
Collective misery,
Huddled in enclaves
Terrified of others,
Darkness strangling the light.
Don’t give up on the dream,
Remember that we’re
Capable of much better
Than out-of-control
Fear and hatred,
There’s another path and
We’re the ones to walk it.
A single pizza purchased
Equally by several people.
Two ravenous vultures
Devour more pieces while
Indifferently telling the others
They should have been quicker.
Regrettable behaviors
Repeated thoughtlessly,
Punctuating self-centered,
Empty existences.
A sudden hush
Interrupts the mirth,
Uncomfortable downward stares.
Beaming in his chair,
He revels in his obnoxiousness,
A well-honed ability
To annoy everyone around him.
That’ll show them,
He thinks to himself,
Every day a battle against
Nice people
Who care about the world
And each other.
Nobody wants
To be on the bottom,
Especially not them,
Which makes them
Supremely susceptible
To anyone suggesting
They can regain
Their former glory,
Which never really
Existed in any form.
No matter how bad things get,
He will never capitulate,
Unable to let his guard down,
Admit wrongdoing,
Change direction.
Everything is a loss in
The land of broken victors.
People come and go,
Fouled by his egotism,
An unrepentant smile
Betrays his narcissism.
Alone at the end of his days,
He’s still glad he won.
All it takes is
One simple thing to
Incur her wrath—
The temerity to
Not follow her commands.
Mortally wounded,
She viciously lashes out at
Her perceived enemy.
It’s been this way for
As long as she can remember,
And she does nothing
To change it,
That would require insight,
Vulnerability.
Vastly overestimating
How much his success is
Due to ability or industry
Versus chance,
A blip in time made
Possible by circumstance.
Rhapsodizing at length about
Nothing, everything,
The sound of his voice
Reassuring him that
His pronouncements carry
Some kind of special weight,
That he’s smarter than the rest,
Dismissing anything
That threatens his
Engorged ego.
A pasted-on smile
Obscures dark bile
Built up over generations of
Harshness and abuse.
Now, unable to feel,
She expends all her energy
Repeating the cycle,
Destroying people to amass things,
Hoarding as much stuff
As possible to compensate
For what’s missing although it
Doesn’t heal her pain.
She doesn’t know what else to do and
Refuses to change course,
Just like her forebears.
He’s fine with government programs
That help him and the people
He’s comfortable with,
Which excludes those who
Don’t look, think, and experience
The world like him.
Talking to friends,
He complains that those people
Have had a free ride for too long.
What’s he ever gotten,
Except for everything?
